Act 1, Scene 1

[Elsinore castle, a lookout platform. Francisco is at his guard post. Bernardo enters.]

Bernardo

Who's there?

Francisco

Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.

Bernardo

Bernardo

Who's there?

Francisco

You answer me! Stay where you are and identify yourself.

Bernardo

Long live the king!

Francisco

Bernardo, is that you?

Bernardo

It’s me.

Long live the king!

Discussion

"Long live the king"

[Click to see note.]

Discussion

"Long live the king"

Bernardo’s exclamation is the password that identifies him to Francisco as a guardsman, rather than a potential enemy. It’s also the second half of a traditional saying that is used when a new ruler succeeds a deceased king: “The king is dead. Long live the king!” The phrase emphasizes the continuity of the monarchy, which will live long despite the death of a king.

Francisco

Bernardo?

Bernardo

He.

Francisco

You come most carefully upon your hour.

Bernardo

'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.

Francisco

For this relief much thanks. ‘Tis bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

Bernardo

Have you had quiet guard?

Francisco

Not a mouse stirring.

Bernardo

Francisco

You’re right on time to take over the watch.

Bernardo

The clock tower has already struck midnight. Get to bed.

Francisco

Thanks for relieving me. It’s bitter cold and my nerves are shot.

Bernardo

Have you had a quiet watch?

Francisco

Not a mouse stirring.

Bernardo

Well, good night. If you meet Horatio and Marcellus, who are going to stand watch with me, tell them to hurry up.

[Enter Horatio and Marcellus.]

Francisco

I think I hear them coming. Stop! Who's there?

Horatio

Loyal Danes.

Marcellus

And soldiers of the king.

Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

[Enter Horatio and Marcellus.]

Francisco

I think I hear them. Stand! Who's there?

Horatio

Friends to this ground.

Marcellus

And liegemen to the Dane.

Francisco

Give you good night.

Marcellus

Oh, farewell, honest soldier.

Who has relieved you?

Francisco

Bernardo has my place.

Give you good night.

[Exit.]

Marcellus

Francisco

Good evening.

Marcellus

Good evening. Who has relieved you?

Francisco

Bernardo has taken my place. Good night.

[Francisco exits.]

Marcellus

Hey, Bernardo!

Bernardo

Hello, Marcellus. Is Horatio with you?

Horatio

A piece of him.

Bernardo

Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, Marcellus.

Holla! Bernardo!

Bernardo

Say,

What, is Horatio there?

Horatio

A piece of him.

Wordplay

"A piece of him"

[Click to see note.]

Wordplay

"A piece of him"

The wordplay here means that this phrase can be read in two ways:

Horatio is huddled up because of the cold.

Horatio is not wholeheartedly into this late-night search for a ghost.

Bernardo

Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.

Marcellus

What, has this thing appeared again tonight?

Bernardo

I have seen nothing.

Marcellus

Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,

And will not let belief take hold of him

Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us.

Marcellus

Has this thing appeared again tonight?

Bernardo

I’ve seen nothing.

Marcellus

Horatio thinks we’re just imagining all this. He doesn’t believe that we’ve actually seen this strange thing twice now. So I’ve invited him to stand watch with us. If that figure appears again he’ll see it with his own eyes, and he can try to speak to it.

Horatio

Nah, it’s not going to appear.

Therefore I have entreated him along

With us to watch the minutes of this night,

That if again this apparition come,

He may approve our eyes and speak to it.

Horatio

Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.

Bernardo

Sit down awhile,

And let us once again assail your ears,

That are so fortified against our story,

Metaphor

"assailing" and "fortified"

[Click to see note.]

Metaphor

"assailing" and "fortified"

Bernardo and Marcellus “assailing” Horatio’s “fortified” ears with their story metaphorically compares their account to a medieval army assaulting a castle or fortress.

What we two nights have seen.

Horatio

Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Bernardo

Bernardo

Have a seat, and let us give you the whole story, which you find so hard to believe.

Horatio

Okay, let’s sit down and I’ll listen to Bernardo’s tale.

Bernardo

Do you see that star there, the one directly west of the North Star? Last night it was in that same position in the sky, so it must have been right about this time – the clock tower had just struck one – when Marcellus and I...

[Ghost enters]

Marcellus

Quiet! Look, there it comes!

Bernardo

It looks exactly as last time, just like the dead king.

Last night of all,

When yond same star that's westward from the pole

Had made his course to illume that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself —

The bell then beating one ...

[Enter Ghost]

Marcellus

Peace, break thee off! Look where it comes again!

Bernardo

In the same figure like the king that's dead.

Marcellus

Thou art a scholar. Speak to it, Horatio.

Bernardo

Looks it not like the king? Mark it, Horatio.

Horatio

Marcellus

You’re educated, Horatio; speak to it.

Bernardo

Doesn’t it look just like the king? Watch it, Horatio.

Horatio

This is frightening and incredible.

Bernardo

It wants us to speak to it.

Marcellus

Question it, Horatio.

Horatio

[To the ghost] What are you? What right do you have to come at this time of night and to assume the majestic appearance of our dead king? In the name of God, I demand that you tell us what you are.

Most like, it harrows me with fear and wonder.

Bernardo

It would be spoke to.

Marcellus

Question it, Horatio.

Horatio

What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,

Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march? By heaven I charge thee, speak!

Marcellus

It is offended.

Bernardo

See, it stalks away!

Horatio

Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

[Exit Ghost.]

Marcellus

'Tis gone and will not answer.

Discussion

Shakespeare has set a tense atmosphere.

[Click to launch video.]

Bernardo

How now, Horatio! You tremble and look pale.

Marcellus

It’s offended.

Bernardo

See, it stalks away!

Horatio

Stay! Speak, speak! I order you, speak!

[Ghost exits.]

Marcellus

It’s gone; it’s not going to answer you.

Bernardo

What’s wrong, Horatio? You’re trembling and as pale as a sheet. Isn’t this more than our imagination? What do you think?

Horatio

I swear to God, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you on't?

Horatio

Before my God, I might not this believe

Without the sensible and true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

Marcellus

Is it not like the king?

Horatio

As thou art to thyself.

Such was the very armor he had on

When he the ambitious Norway combated.

So frowned he once when, in an angry parle,

He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

Allusion

"smote the sledded Polacks"

[Click to see note.]

Allusion

“smote the sledded Polacks”

Around 1250, a group of knights—including some Danish royalty—embarked on a crusade. Their objective was not to retake Palestine from the Muslim Ottoman Empire, but to attack the Eastern Orthodox Christians of Northern Europe, whom they considered to be pagans. The two forces clashed in a battle on a frozen lake near the Baltic Sea. If, as some critics think, Shakespeare is alluding to this battle, what does this knowledge add to the scene?

Marcellus

Isn’t it just like the king?

Horatio

This ghost looks as much like King Hamlet as you look like yourself. The armor it’s wearing looks exactly like the armor King Hamlet wore when he fought the king of Norway. And it frowned just like King Hamlet did when he fought the Poles in that battle on the frozen lake [see note]. This is really weird.

Marcellus

That’s two times already we’ve seen this thing in the middle of the night march past us with that military stride.

Horatio

I have no idea what to make of this, but my gut feeling is that this means something bad is going to happen here in Denmark.

'Tis strange.

Marcellus

Thus twice before — and just at this dead hour —

With martial stalk, hath he gone by our watch.

Horatio

In what particular thought to work, I know not.

But in the gross and scope of my opinion,

This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

Marcellus

Good now. Sit down and tell me, he that knows,

Why this same strict and most observant watch

So nightly toils the subject of the land,

And why such daily cast of brazen cannon

And foreign mart for implements of war,

Marcellus

Sit down, and whoever knows what’s going on, please explain it to me. Why are we having to stand all these guard watches? Why are the forges casting more and more cannons every day? Why are we buying weapons abroad? And why are all the shipbuilders working in the dockyards day and night, even Sundays? Who can explain all this?

Why such impress of shipwrights whose sore task

Does not divide the Sunday from the week.

What might be toward, that this sweaty haste

Doth make the night joint-laborer with the day?

Who is't that can inform me?

Horatio

That can I.

At least the whisper goes so. Our last king,

Whose image even but now appeared to us,

Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway

Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride,

Horatio

I can – at least as the rumors have it. Our recently deceased King Hamlet, whose ghost it seems we’ve just seen, was challenged to a one-on-one fight by King Fortinbras of Norway, acting out of ego and envy. King Fortinbras, having legally wagered all his family’s lands on the fight, ended up losing not only his life but his family's royal estates as well.

Dared to the combat in which our valiant Hamlet —

For so, this side of our known world esteemed him —

Did slay this Fortinbras who by a sealed compact,

Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands

Which he stood seized of to the conqueror.

Against the which, a moiety competent

Was gaged by our king, which had returned

(Horatio)

Our King Hamlet had wagered an equivalent amount of land which would have gone to Fortinbras had he won, in accordance with that same agreement under which Fortinbras forfeited his lands to our king.

To the inheritance of Fortinbras

Had he been vanquisher, as by the same covenant

And carriage of the article designed,

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,

Sharked up a list of landless resolutes,

For food and diet, to some enterprise

(Horatio)

But now the slain king’s son, Prince Fortinbras, though untested as a ruler and warrior, has raised an army throughout Norway with the intention of invading Denmark and taking back the lands his father lost. As I understand it, that’s the reason behind the war preparations, why we have to stand these watches, and the cause of this commotion throughout Denmark.

That hath a stomach in't, which is no other —

And it doth well appear unto our state —

But to recover of us, by strong hand

And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands

So by his father lost. And this, I take it,

Is the main motive of our preparations,

The source of this our watch, and the chief

Of this post-haste and rummage in the land.

Discussion

The political situation in Denmark.

[Click to launch video.]

[Enter Ghost.]

But soft, behold! Lo where it comes again!

I'll cross it though it blast me.

Wordplay

“I’ll cross it, though it blast me”[Click to see note.]

Wordplay

“I’ll cross it, though it blast me”

The ambiguity in Horatio’s words mean that we could read his line in two ways:

Horatio intends to cross in front of the ghost to confront it.

He wants to make the sign of the cross for protection—in case it’s an evil spirit.

[The ghost spreads its arms.]

Stay, illusion!

(Horatio)

Quiet! Look, there it comes again! I’ll confront it even if it attacks me. [To the ghost] If you can talk, speak to me. If there is anything which I can do to help you which would also reflect well on me, speak.

If thou hast any sound or use of voice,

Speak to me.

If there be any good thing to be done,

That may to thee do ease and grace to me,

Speak to me.

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,

Which, happily foreknowing, may avoid,

(Horatio)

If you’re aware of some danger which, if we know about, we could avoid, tell us. If you have come back to guard stolen treasure which you buried during your lifetime – one reason, they say, you sprits roam the earth – speak. Tell us why you’re come, stay here and tell us. Don’t let it go, Marcellus.

[A rooster crows.]

Oh, speak!

Or if thou hast uphoarded, in thy life,

Extorted treasure in the womb of earth

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

Speak of it. Stay and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.

[The cock crows.]

Marcellus

Shall I strike at it with my partisan?

Horatio

Do, if it will not stand.

[They strike at the Ghost.]

Bernardo

'Tis here!

Horatio

Marcellus

Should I hit it with my lance?

Horatio

Hit it, if it won’t stay.

[They strike at the Ghost.]

Bernardo

It’s over here!

Horatio

No, here it is!

[Ghost exits]

Marcellus

We shouldn’t be trying to harm it; it looks like royalty. Besides, it’s pointless to strike at it; our weapons just pass through it like air.

Bernardo

It was about to speak when the rooster crowed.

'Tis here!

[Exit Ghost.]

Marcellus

'Tis gone!

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it the show of violence.

For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Bernardo

It was about to speak when the cock crew.

Horatio

And then it started like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons. I have heard

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,

Horatio

It panicked like a criminal spotted by the police. I’ve heard it said that when the rooster crows in the morning, right before daybreak, all spirits rush back to wherever they come from – whether that’s in the sea, air, earth, or fire. This ghost’s behavior seems to prove that’s true.

Doth, with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat,

Awake the god of day, and at his warning,

Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,

The extravagant and erring spirit hies

To his confine. And of the truth herein,

This present object made probation.

Marcellus

It faded on the crowing of the cock.

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes around

Wherein our Savior's birth is celebrated,

Marcellus

It certainly took off when that rooster crowed. Some people say that at Christmas time, roosters crow all night long, which keeps evil spirits from coming out. This makes the nights completely safe during that holy time of the year – misaligned planets can’t do any harm, bad fairies can’t take anyone’s life, and witches have no power.

The bird of dawning singeth all night long,

And then, they say, no spirit dares walk abroad.

The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,

No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

So hallowed and so gracious is the time.

Horatio

So have I heard and do in part believe it.

But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,

Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill.

Break we our watch up, and by my advice,

Horatio

I’ve heard that also, but I don’t completely believe it. Look over there where the sun is rising; those hills seem to be wearing a red cloak. Our watch is over now, and in my opinion, we owe it out of duty and friendship to tell Prince Hamlet what we’ve seen tonight. That ghost wouldn’t speak to us, but I’ll bet my life it’ll speak to him.

Marcellus

Let’s do that, and I know exactly where we can find Hamlet this morning.